The Instrumental Component of the Epic Genres of the Carpathian Tradition

If the context of the performance of ritual and dance music is described in detail in a number of monographs at the beginning and middle of the last century, then with descriptions of the existence of epic genres the situation is somewhat different. Most collections of epic songs contain verbal and musical texts, however, the context of the performance, the number of performers, and the instrumental component are not always described. The article is devoted to the epic genres of folklore of the Ukrainians of the Carpathians. The article examines the modern existence of such epic genres of Ukrainian Carpathian folklore as psalm, song-chronicle, ballad. The aim of the study is to show the epic genres of folklore of the Ukrainian Carpathians in the context of its modern existence in the Carpathian village and in connection with the instrumental tradition of the region. The study covers Eastern Galicia (Halychyna), in particular Galician Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttia (Pokucie), where the author's fieldwork took place. Modern field recordings of psalms, which were previously carried by itinerant lyre players, indicate that the works of this genre in some places have survived to this day due to their inclusion in the calendar tradition. Some of them are preserved as Christmas and Lenten songs. So, in the village Stary Lisets of the Tysmenytsa district of IvanoFrankivsk region, the psalm «About Stratenska Virgin Mary» about the siege of the monastery by the Tatars became a carol. In the Kosiv and Verkhovyna districts of Ivano-Frankivsk region (Galician Hutsulshchyna), songs-chronicles («novyny») continue to exist. This genre of Ukrainian folklore appeared in the 17th century. Songs-chronicles reflect historical events from the time of the opryshky movement to the present day and family and household dramas. In the village Khymchyn of the Kosiv region, the author of these lines was lucky to record two songs-chronicles – about Dovbush and about the First World War. The performer alternated singing with playing on a sopilka-dencivka. The author finds out ideas of the bearers of the tradition about the correct performance of songs-chronicles. The classical performance of chronicle songs is predominantly solo (one singer and one accompanist-instrumentalist). Folk ballads that exist in the modern Carpathian region can be divided into local and late ones, a significant part of which came from the Central regions of Ukraine in the 20th century. At the same time, part of the late ballads comes from the ancient ones that arose on the territory of the Ukrainian Carpathians in the 17th–18th centuries. Evidence of the 20th century and the records of modern collectors of Carpathian folklore show that the performance of ancient Carpathian ballads is close to the performance of songs-chronicles. Old Carpathian ballads are characterized by a declamatory manner of singing accompanied by a violin, hurdy-gurdy or sopilka-flute and a narrow ambitus. Old ballads are associated with individual performance and folk-professional instrumentalism. Nowadays they can be heard less often than late ballads associated with collective choral singing. To get a complete picture of the context of the existence of the ancient Carpathian ballads, it is necessary to interview the inhabitants of the villages where they were recorded in the XX – at the beginning of the XXI century – Kornych, Myshyn, Cherni Oslavy, Velykyi Klyuchiv and Kosmach.

Symbol of Door as Mary in Images of the Annunciation of the 14th-15th Centuries

The current article addresses the topic of the symbolic identification of the Virgin Mary as a door according to a double possibility, namely, as an open door and as a shut door. This implies designating Mary simultaneously as ianua coeli and as porta clausa. These two possibilities suggest very different, though complementary, doctrinal meanings. Through the textual analysis of various quotes from the Church Fathers and theologians and medieval liturgical hymns referring to one or other of these two metaphorical expressions, the Author will determine the doctrinal meanings inherent in each one. In the second instance, the iconographic analysis of seven images of the Annunciation from the 14th and 15th centuries that include some door in special conditions will allow us to validate the hypothesis that the intellectual authors of these seven paintings introduced that door into them as a visual metaphor capable of illustrating both textual metaphors of porta clausa and ianua coeli.

The Vulnerable Therapeutic Water Spaces of Virgen de Caysasay

The Virgen de Caysasay is one of the oldest manifestations of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines. According to popular belief, a fisherman netted her statue in the Pansipit River in 1603. Many miraculous healing events, mostly involving water, have been attributed to her. Despite the devastating effects of the climate crisis, Caysasay water spaces endure as therapeutic, healing, and ritual places. This essay examines the interlocking dynamics and vulnerabilities of bodies of water associated with the Virgen de Caysasay, their contextual sacred spaces where pieties are performed, and their surrounding communities

Katarina Elizabeta baronica Raumschüssl, rojena Sauer, in njena loretska kapela pri celjskih minoritih

On 30 June 1692, the widowed Baroness Katharina Elisabeth Raumschüssl from the family of Counts Sauer of Borl established the sung Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Celje Minorite monastery. This previously overlooked deed of gift is important not only as a testimony to the Baroness's pious intentions and the connections between the Sauers and the Celje Minorites but also because of its reference to the Loreto chapel in the monastery church, whose extension and furnishing the Baroness financed as well, according to the deed. The chapel is another in a series of copies of the Holy House of Loreto, Mary's house from Nazareth, many of which were also constructed in Styria by the end of the 17th century, especially by noble patrons. The article presents the Baroness's family background, related to the veneration of Our Lady of Loreto, and discusses the most probable location and reconstruction of the chapel. Based on the interpretation of Ignacij Orožen's record and the 1813 plan of the monastery, the present article presents a well-argued thesis that the Loreto chapel was once located on the site nowadays occupied by the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes in the succursal (formerly Minorite) Church of the Assumption of Mary in Celje.

A Unique 14th Century Seal Matrix from Giebło, Zawiercie District

A unique lead seal-matrix with majuscule legend: LUCIANI PRESBITERI belonging to a priest was found by the Romanesque castle church in Giebło. The name of its owner is mentioned in written sources from the years 1325–1327 as plebanus ecclesie de Kebel. As PRESBITER he probably didn’t enjoy all privileges that the collator usually bestows on a parish priest on his property. Possibly for that reason he had his matrix made in an easy-to-process material, infrequently used for such objects in this part of Europe. The use of this raw material suggests someone who tried avoid the high costs of making the item. Special attention is merited by the composition of a fleur-de-lis crowned with the cross engraved on the seal face that resembles a heraldic device. The repetition of a schematic lily flower on the reverse of the matrix shows the special importance of this sign (identified in medieval time with the Blessed Virgin Mary); this symbol was treated in this way by, for example, Cistercians. By presenting his name in the company of these symbols, Lucianus gave his seal strength and credibility.

Семантика регулятива мати в посланнях Андрея Шептицького

The article highlights the issue of the lexical regulative maty semantics in the epistles of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky. Since the case study material is the religious style texts, the lexeme under consideration, in addition to its basic meaning of „woman, in relation to the child she gave birth to”, expands its semantics with the meaning of „church, in relation to its believers” with its concretization through the adjective lexemes native, genuine. The frequency actualization of the regulative maty (mother) has been revealed in the names of the religious discourse Mother of God, God’s Mother, Mother of Christ, Holy Mother, Blessed Mother, used to denote the motherhood of the Virgin Mary in relation to Jesus Christ, and in the nomens the Mother of us all, the Mother of Heaven, used for the explication of her motherhood significance to all the faithful on the Earth. The secular meaning of the lexical regulative mother is determined by the style of woman’s behavior as a Christian and indicated, primarily, by the attributes of pious, Christian, native mother (a family status in relation to children). The Metropolitan’s idiostyle illustrates the use of the studied regulative in a clear family hierarchy, for example father and mother; father, mother, brother, sister, wife, husband; mother and a child, including a generalized collective image of all women, whose primary mission is the birth and upbringing of children.